American Express Personal Savings Account Review

If you've taken a look at the best high yield savings accounts, you know that interest rates are just pathetic. Three years ago, I owned an Capital One 360 account which offered close to 4% APY and now it's impossible to find anything greater than 0.90% annually. Only two banks today offer that kind of “quality” interest rate and one of them is the brand new American Express Personal Savings Account. I decided to open up an online savings account with AMEX (I already have one with FNBO, HSBC and Ally) to broaden my savings portfolio. Here's a brief review on the process so far.

American Express Personal Savings Sign-Up

Getting set-up with this account took just over 60 seconds, making it the fastest deposit account I've ever opened online by a large amount of time. As you can see from the image above, the application is broken into four steps, each of which only requires a small amount of personal information. No security questions to answer and no hard credit pulls to submit to … this is as straight forward an application as can be. After completing the personal information, I was asked to fund my account via check or electronic deposit. I chose the latter, and my application was complete.

But before the account is fully executed, I have to wait a few days for the small deposits AMEX Bank initiated to show up, at which point I can transfer the funds and officially become an American Express Personal Savings Account holder. I was also provided an email with all of the details on my account and should receive a welcome kit in the mail within 7 business days. The confirmation page of a successfully opened applications looks like this:

American Express Personal Savings Products

Now that American Express has launched a bank, it can offer deposit products in addition to it's successful line of credit and charge cards. Still very new, the product line is thin and contains only a savings account and a few CD's.

American Express Personal Savings Account

Any consumer can open up an AMEX online savings account and can do so with just $1. There are no fees to own this account and no account minimums to maintain in order to keep the account fee-free. A few words from American Express …

Our High-Yield Savings account comes with convenient features like 24/7 account access by phone or web, making it easy to check your balance or transfer money in or out when you want. And there’s no need to switch banks. Make deposits and withdrawals to your Personal Savings account electronically by linking your existing account at another bank in a few simple steps.

Interest Rate – 0.85%

American Express Personal CD's

American Express offers seven different terms to their CD's, all of which are FDIC insured. Unfortunately, the rates that Discover Bank offers for CD's is much better than that of AMEX, but for reference, here is a current list of rates:

Term Length

Interest Rate (APY)

6 Months

0.40%

12 months

0.55%

18 months

0.60%

2 Years

0.80%

3 Years

0.90%

4 Years

1.00%

5 Years

1.10%

If you're a consumer in need of an online savings account, I would highly recommend an American Express Personal Savings Account. It has the highest APY of any bank available today AND is the simplest to sign-up with. American Express has always been regarded as the most respected credit card issuer and I have a hunch I'll feel the same way about being a deposit customer too.

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Last Edited: May 29, 2017 @ 4:52 pmThe content of ptmoney.com is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Visitors to ptmoney.com should not act upon the content or information without first seeking appropriate professional advice. In accordance with the latest FTC guidelines, we declare that we have a financial relationship with every company mentioned on this site.

About Michael Pruser

After spending a ton of money to go to the private University of Miami, Michael now enjoys spending time at home, writing personal finance articles for the world to read. His journey out of debt continues 500 words at a time.

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The content of ptmoney.com is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Visitors to ptmoney.com should not act upon the content or information without first seeking appropriate professional advice.